War Crimes Prosecution Watch, Vol. 6, Issue 4

War Crimes Prosecution Watch is prepared by the International Justice Practice of the Public International Law & Policy Group and the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Central African Republic & Uganda

Darfur, Sudan

Kenya

Libya

AFRICA

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Special Court for Sierra Leone

EUROPE

European Court of Human Rights

Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia

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War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. For more information about War Crimes Prosecution Watch, please contact warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org.

Serbian war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic arrested

By Polly Johnson
Senior Desk Officer, Europe

Ratko Mladic stands accused of orchestrating the worst massacre in Europe since the Holocaust. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters).
Ratko Mladic stands accused of orchestrating the worst massacre in Europe since the Holocaust. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters).

SERBIA – Bringing a gruesome chapter in history to a close, former Serbian army commander Ratko Mladic, 69, was arrested on Thursday.

Mladic’s arrest followed sixteen years of hiding and a three-year investigation. He has been charged with genocide, extermination and murder by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The genocide charge stems from his alleged role in directing the murder of eight thousand Bosnian Muslim men and boys in July of 1995 after the fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.

Mladic also stands accused of ethnic cleansing, forcible deportations, torture, forced labor, mass killings, and widespread psychological, physical and sexual violence against Bosnian Muslims between 1992 and 1995.

In a written statement, prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Serge Brammertz wrote, “Mladic’s arrest clearly signals that the commitment to international criminal justice is entrenched. Today’s events show that people responsible for grave violations of international humanitarian law can no longer count on impunity.”

After the 1995 indictment, Mladic disappeared. Though he was occasionally seen at football games and at his home in Belgrade, he vanished after the fall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Milosevic died in 2006 while his trial in The Hague was still going on.

Though some have called for the quick transfer of Mladic to the Netherlands for trial, extradition could take up to a week. The process depends on whether Mladic will appeal or not, which is unlikely as most accused fight extradition. If he does not appeal, he could be in the Netherlands within a day.

Elated reactions resonated throughout Europe and beyond upon news of the arrest. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called Mladic’s arrest “an historic day for international justice.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the arrest “very big news.”

“As Bosnian Serb military commander, General Mladic played a key role in some of the darkest episodes of Balkan and European history, including the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of thousands of Bosnian men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“Almost sixteen years since his indictment for genocide and other war crimes, his arrest finally offers a chance for justice to be done,” Rasmussen added.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Mladic’s trial “should teach again the grim reality of ethnic cleansing and, I hope, bring some comfort to those who survived.”

“Justice works,” Albright said in a statement.

The arrest moves Serbia one step closer to integration into the European Union, which forbade Serbia from membership talks because of the country’s failure to arrest Mladic. Still, the integration process takes years to complete.

For now, however, human rights advocates, world leaders and those who were affected by the massacre can rejoice over the arrest of the man who Interpol called, “Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect.”

In the news release, Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said, “The arrest by Serbian police of Ratko Mladic, an alleged architect of human carnage and mass murder, is a triumph for international justice.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Ratko Mladic arrested in Serbia – 26 May 2011

CNN – Bosnia genocide suspect Ratko Mladic arrested in Serbia – 26 May 2011

CNN – Mladic arrest hailed as ‘important day for international justice’ – 26 May 2011

Economist – Ratko Mladic: Caught at last – 26 May 2011

New York Times – Mladic Arrest Opens Door to Serbia’s Long-Sought European Union Membership – 26 May 2011

Telegraph – Ratko Mladic arrest: extradition could take a week – 26 May 2011

New Study Shows 420,000 Raped Each Year in DR Congo

by Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

A victim of the New Years rape in Fizu, South Kivu with her son; Photo courtesy of USA Today
A victim of the New Years rape in Fizu, South Kivu with her son; Photo courtesy of Pete Muller, AP

Democratic Republic of Congo– An upcoming report in the American Journal of Public Health has revealed that more than 420,000 women are raped annually in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  This number is significantly higher than those being reported by other organizations, like the UN, who previously estimated a figure closer to 16,000 annually.  However, the AJPH study is based on a 2007 nation-wide survey that also found 1.7 million women in the DRC will be raped at some point in their lives and an additional 3 million will be raped by an intimate partner.  The report, which will be released this June, reads “Not only is sexual violence more generalized than previously thought, but our findings suggest that future policies and programs should focus on abuse within families[.]”

Previously, an accurate accounting of rape in the DRC has been made difficult by the instability of the region.  The DRC is still suffering the effects of the civil war that officially ended in 2003.  Since that time, rebel factions have terrorized civilian populations in an effort to gain control of mineral deposits located primarily in the east.  Rape has become a common weapon and while some men and boys are victims, women are the primary target.  Tony Gambino, the Congo mission director for United States Agency for International Development (USAID), told ABC News, “The worst violence is done by armed boys and men, many of whom are in the Congolese military.”

A number of factors play into the lack of accountability for the crime.  Throughout most of the country, women who are raped are disowned by their families and try to hide the rape rather than speak about it.  Tia Palermo, a co-author of the AJPH study, told ABC News, “There is stigma, shame and impunity so why bother reporting a rape if nothing is going to happen. We know from other conflict regions that less than half of rape victims report their abuse.”  Additionally, even when perpetrators are arrested for rape it is likely they will receive light sentences or simply escape from jail, as a March report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated.  As Gambino told ABC, “Because officials can be paid off, even a small fish can get out of prison for $5 in the Congo.”

While the February conviction of Lt. Col. Kibibi Mutuare and 10 of the soldiers under his command for the rape of dozens of women in a small South Kivu village over New Years brought 49 women to court to testify, many believe the perception of women in the DRC needs to change.  Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, said, “The DRC cannot move ahead without the full inclusion of women politically . . . . economically, through agriculture and beyond, and socially, through a robust civil society movement. . . .Investing in women is not only the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.”

For more information, please see;

NYT– Notes From a Young American in Congo: The Stigma of Rape– 6 May, 2011

USA Today– 420K Congolese Women are Raped Each Year– 11 May, 2011

SF Chronicle– Congo Rape Problem More Widespread Than Thought, Study Shows– 12 May, 2011

ABC News– Nearly Every Minute a Woman is Raped in the Congo– 13 May, 2011

VOA News– Curbing DC’s Gender-based Violence– 13 May, 2011